Ultrastructure of intralobular lymphocyte migration in the liver of hemodialysis patients

Presence of predominantly small lymphocytes in sinusoids and their immigration into the Disse space as well as into intercellular spaces between hepatocytes were recorded by electron microscopy from liver biopsies of 11 in 18 haemodialysis patients. No degenerative alterations were recordable from adjacent hepatocytes. These findings were obtained from patients with acute hepatitis (one case), minimal or chronic persistent hepatitis (two cases), reactive hepatitis (three cases), lobular and portal hepatitis (one case) as well as from the cases of metabolic-toxic alterations and one case of chronic blood congestion. HBV antigens were serologically identified in six cases. A HBcAg-free HBsAg type was immunohistologically diagnosed in one case only. No correlation was found to exist between the morphological results, on the one hand, and cellular immune pattern in peripheral blood, on the other. The above findings differed from most investigations of hepatitis B cases, in that no evidence could be found to cytotoxic action of lymphocytes upon adjacent hepatocytes. More investigations will be required for interpretation of the above findings, primarily immuno-electron microscopic studies.